Artist Profile

frederick r wagner

9

frederick r. wagner

Frederick R. Wagner

Lived:

1864-1940

Worked:

Pennsylvania

Style:

Landscape, Urban

Frederick Wagner, a Philadelphia, Pennsylvania painter and teacher, was born in Port Kennedy, Pennsylvania in 1864. Wagner enrolled at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (1878-1884) and was made chief demonstrator of anatomy to the life classes by the Academy. After completing his studies at the Academy where he studied under Thomas Eakins, he traveled west and began painting in California.

Upon returning to Philadelphia, he took a job as an illustrator for the Philadelphia Press and was heavily influenced by the Urban Realism propagated by Robert Henri, William Glackens and John Sloan. Wagner often painted impressionist urban scenes of Philadelphia, and like many of his contemporaries, he did work that often portrayed the overwhelming city diminishing the importance and frailty of humanity.

He was asked to teach at the Pennsylvania Academy’s Chester Springs School and did so for seven years. Around 1912, Wagner opened his studio in Philadelphia and founded the Addingham School of Painting in an old farmhouse, in a colony similar to the one in the New Hope area. His modernist work is also highly sought after by collectors whose interest’s center around the artworks created by America’s “Avant-Garde” during the late 19th century and first four decades of the 20th century.

References:
Alterman, “Pennsylvania Impressionists & Modernists,”
American Art Review, Oct. 2001
Falk (ed.), Who Was Who in American Art 1564-1975
Falk (ed.), The Annual Exhibition Record, 1876-1913, Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts
Gerdts, Peterson and Yount, Pennsylvania Impressionism
Mallett, Mallett’s Index of Artists: International - Biographical
Naeve, Selections from 150 Years of Philadelphia Painters and Paintings
Opitz (ed.), Mantle Fielding’s Dictionary of American Painters, Sculptors & Engravers
Preato & Langer, Impressionism and Post-Impressionism Transformations 1885-1945
Schwarz & Son (pub.), One Hundred Paintings by American and European Artists
Schwarz & Son (pub.), American Impressionism and Other Movements
Alterman, New Hope for American Art: A Comprehensive Showing of Important
20th Century Paintings from and Surrounding the New Hope Art Colony
Falk (ed.), The Annual Exhibition Record of the Art Institute of Chicago
Falk (ed.), Annual Exhibition Record, National Academy of Design 1901-1950
Falk (ed.) Annual Exhibition Record, 1914-68, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts
Fresella-Lee, The American Paintings in the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts
Marling, Looking Back, A Perspective on the 1913 Inaugural Exhibition
Walter and Lemos, Panama-Pacific Exposition: Catalogue of the Post-Exposition Exhibit
Dunbier (ed.), The Artists Bluebook: 34,000 North American Artists to March 2005
Alterman, Blue Chips
Sellin and Sullivan, Thomas Eakins and His Fellow Artists at the Philadelphia Sketch Club
Falk (ed.), Who Was Who in American Art 1898-1947
Lowe Art Museum, Panama-Pacific Exposition: Catalogue of the Post-Exposition Exhibit
Peterson (ed.), Pennsylvania Impressionism